Southern by Design: Fall, Food and Football

Those three words sum up my weekend. This cooler, crisp weather has been amazing! Also, my awesome roommate snatched the last two cans of pumpkin from the shelves of Wal-Mart for me. The best part about that is that I didn't even have to go to Wal-Mart! While Wal-Mart may have had pumpkin all along, I try to avoid going there at all costs. Yes, Wal-Mart is a great way to save money, but I also have to prepare mentally each time I go there and pray for an extra dose of patience in the morning. Especially at Christmastime.

Back to the current season. On Friday, I celebrated fall by going apple picking at Sky Top Orchard. Here's a few pictures from our afternoon...

This is me giving Andrew the usual "can we please just get one normal picture?" speech. He doesn't look too concerned. Notice there are not any other pictures of us on this post. That's because we never got a normal picture.

My and one of my roomies

Yummy!

While I haven't made any apple recipes yet, I did make some delicious pumpkin cupcakes that I saw on this lovely blog. Here is the recipe...

Pumpkin Spice Cake

1 Package Yellow Cake Mix ( I use Pillsbury Moist Supreme Classic Yellow)

1/2 c. Granulated Sugar

1/2 c. vegetable oil

1 can pumpkin (15 oz. pure pumpkin–we like Libby’s brand)

1/4 cup water

1 tsp vanilla

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

4 eggs

1 tsp pumpkin pie spice

Combine all ingredients in bowl and beat until well blended. Bake at 325 for 23-24 minutes or until cupcakes spring back to touch. Frost with your favorite cream cheese icing.

These cupcakes were so moist and easy to make. I modified my cream cheese icing recipe from this post for the frosting. I honestly don't know how much I added, but I put a little canned pumpkin, pumpkin pie spice and cinnamon until I was satisfied with the taste and consistency. Here are a few pictures of them...